That's the name of the bedtime book I've been reading. It's pretty devastating, both to the historical accuracy of the Hebrew Bible and, therefore, to the validity of the Christian Bible. Specifically, the authors (both important scholars, one Israeli and the other Belgian) present very thorough archaeological evidence that the story of the Exodus is fiction, and that the narrative of the unification of the kingdom of Israel under David and then Solomon is equally fictitious. But if that's the case, then the whole Christian recapitulation of the Israelite wandering in the desert for forty years is pointless, and the business of "the root of Jesse" is irrelevant, and the story of Jesus as the sprig of that root also becomes irrelevant.

Anyway, a very interesting book, if a bit repetitive from time to time.

Sounds interesting. The History channel, those bastions of historical accuracy , , have a program on the military aspects of the Bible. In that they claim that the Israelites were not so much Enslaved in Egypt and that they did not just wander around in the desert those 40 years, lost, but that they took that time to build up their military might to to evade the "promise land"

I've always thought it interesting that God told the Hebrews that the land of Cannon was promised to them but somehow didn't inform the cannonites that He was promising it to them.

Rather like He promised Oklahoma to the Cherokee, I suppose

Dave

_________________________
There are 10 kinds of people.Those that understand binary and those that don't.

?...the narrative of the unification of the kingdom of Israel under David and then Solomon is equally fictitious. But if that's the case, then the whole Christian recapitulation of the Israelite wandering in the desert for forty years is pointless, and the business of "the root of Jesse" is irrelevant

Oh my! I suppose that means that Mr Cox and I should be named Nebakanezer ?

Dave

_________________________
There are 10 kinds of people.Those that understand binary and those that don't.

What the authors say is that it is literally impossible for the story of the Exodus to be true. They conclude that the "historical" books of the Hebrew Bible, basically The Pentateuch, Judges, and 1 and 2 Kings, are all cobbled together in the 7th century BCE, under King Josiah of Judah, in order to . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . justify Josiah's imperial ambitions. The whole cyclical turn of Israelite "history," as repeatedly the nations' sinfulness leads to expulsion and loss until a cleansing of the nation takes place and its restoration follows--all of that is political spinmeistership by Josiah's PR offices. To my mind, that's the greatest challenge to both the Hebrew and the Christian Bible since loss and recovery marks Israel as God's chosen people on the one hand, and defines the foundation for Christian redemption through Jesus on the other hand.

?...the narrative of the unification of the kingdom of Israel under David and then Solomon is equally fictitious. But if that's the case, then the whole Christian recapitulation of the Israelite wandering in the desert for forty years is pointless, and the business of "the root of Jesse" is irrelevant

Oh my! I suppose that means that Mr Cox and I should be named Nebakanezer ?

Dave

Why?Did you see that Written on the Wall somewhere?

_________________________."...or am I a butterfly dreaming she's a woman?"

I've always been the Problem Childwho'd question authority at every turn(I'm of the opinion that RESPECT MUST BE EARNED)

Even as a child I used to question what most people automatically took for granted, asking;"Who Died and made You king?" ...even of KINGS..

So it naturally followed that I asserted,"Of course 'you're God's Chosen People'!...YOU WROTE THE FLIPPIN' BOOK!...Had I written it, all short, cute chickswith big bazzooms would be God's Chosen People!" "

_________________________."...or am I a butterfly dreaming she's a woman?"

Hey Yoyo ... BUT they did verify creation and the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve didn't they ! . . . . Texas needs to know !!

What many forget or ignore is this information was passed down for centuries by word of mouth- i.e. story telling.... it wasn't written down until much later in the Bible. Even the Dead Sea Scrolls were written but from the verbal stories! SO how much fact was adulterated ? (Guess that makes the story tellers adulterers !! ) Seriously, and even when written and passed down during the Dark and Middle ages... how much was changed , tweaked, played up and moderated ? ANY one who thinks the King James Bible is really the literal word of God is a fool ! It has some good lessons in it and some good messages... but they're far from actual events and facts. I see them as a series of parables... just get the message and forget the details. The meat is in the message.

I loved how William Jennings Bryan asked the Biblical scholars at the Scopes trial, if the sun really stopped (means the earth stopped rotating) at the battle of Jerico, Why did we all not go flying off in space ? Musta been those aliens and their gravitational force field that saved the Israelites !

Not disagreeing with you, but from what I read is that in th oldendays, the narration give from elders to youngins was stated pretty much from a stated memory with little paraphrasing. Hard to imagine in the curent era but then is was treated as fact. For example my grandad tells a story exactl as his told him and exactl as I wil tell mine

At least as what I've learned. They realized the importance of repeating verbatim

Dave

_________________________
There are 10 kinds of people.Those that understand binary and those that don't.

This book takes it for granted that much of what is reported in the historical books is legendary and has an oral source. What makes the book especially interesting is the argument that in the 7th century BCE Josiah's spinmeisters deliberately worked over those legends and oral stories in order to justify Josiah's imperial desires. A really really interesting book!

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